


Reel Him In

by Anonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Flirting, Multi, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22211098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Dirk is stubborn about proving himself a survivor while stuck in freezing weather that he isn't used to, and Feferi and Eridan are rapidly growing too fond of him to let him get away with it.
Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes/Dirk Strider
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13
Collections: Polyswap Winter Promptfest - Dusk Edition, anonymous





	Reel Him In

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [thescyfychannel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel) in the [Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Polyswap_Winter_Promptfest_Dusk_2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:** I would love to see these guys dealing with being snowed in. ... maybe at a cabin with one bed that accidentally got rented to three people.

* * *

  
It was possible to trudge-slash-tunnel a way to where the snow drifts didn't lie as deep, and from there back to the service station with its radio and cars and road access - but was it advisable? Feferi tilted her head as she considered the idea, the darkness of the day as clouds hung heavy up past the tree branches, and the sound of the wind picking up.

There were marshmallows in the cabin behind her. Kelp snaps. Shark jerky. Even real food, and not only snacks. Two men, one an old friend and one who didn't have any idea what was coming.

She stamped through the packed-in snow and was wriggling in through the cabin's kitchen window in no time. It was on the sheltered side of the house where the drifts were lower, and while all the doors opened into snow or let the snow inside, it was the best entrance and exit. She found the other occupants in the living room, Eridan unpacking, and admiring his clothes while he did so, and the human sitting stoic and still on the couch.

Folded blankets were stacked high on either side of him, enough so that he must have scoured the cabin's cupboards last night. He really, really should have used the bed, since it had a big electric blanket and the bedroom had extra built-in heaters on the walls, but he'd insisted on leaving it to her and Eridan since that was the efficient use of space. And because they were old friends who'd only picked up contact with each other again recently, and because he feared for his life if he didn't properly welcome his bug-mammal-mermaid overlords, and the whole point of him being here was due to the demands of self-sufficiency, and sheeeeesh, he had gone on like that forever. The guy could give Karkat a run for his money when it came to a word war. And that despite the way his teeth had chattered whenever he spoke - all of the previous evening and with the few words she and Eridan had got out of him this morning.

He wasn't using the blankets currently - not exactly, and not like he should be. At least he was wearing a jacket, and the blankets had been positioned to wedge tightly enough against him that he had to be getting some warmth. Also wedged so tight that it sort of looked like...

"Oh, good. You're already stuck. That takes care of the beginning stage." Feferi gave Mr Human Frailty - he'd been practically polite about introducing himself - a smile as she patted the blankets on both sides and loomed over him a touch. It was a notably toothy smile, she knew. Practically-polite-ness deserved pointed teasing in return.

Human Frailty didn't so much as blink twice, she could see past the tops of his sunglasses. Fun.

"She's kiddin, she's been over all of that for ages now," Eridan explained.

"Hey, you and I are only just getting caught up again! Are you shore about that assessment?"

"My assessments remain impeccable as ever. I've got science on my side, don't I?"

Eridan's sneer was unfamiliar, because it was a pretense at one; she was looking forward to getting used to the change. She'd once thought she would stay mad and frustrated at him forever and yet here and now, she beamed at him in response.

"None of that explained anything to me, BFFsies," said Human Frailty. "I get the distinct sense that you think it did, but I have to break it to you: The brain-twin channel is open between you two alone."

Immediately Feferi went back into trolling mode. "You need taking care of, don't you?" she crooned. Propping an elbow on one of the blanket stacks, she leaned low over him, a curl of her hair brushing his face. "I have excellent instincts when it comes to healing and caretaking. What Eridan is remembering is that I used to practice on _all_ my pets."

"Oh my god," said - both of them, the human muttering and Eridan loudly.

"Fef, show mercy, allow the man some dignity!"

"Pfft, _dignity_ \- you know what I think of that. And Mr Frailty already gave up on that. Didn't you?"

"A temporary setback. It'll be back, let's say ... in spring." His gaze slid sideways to a window, where it didn't look like daylight anymore despite it being barely past noon; the weather was worsening fast. A muscle in his cheek jumped from how hard he tensed his jaw. "Maybe."

Eridan snorted. "Thought you said your bookin overlaps with ours? Two weeks will get you nothin but more of high winter."

"And it's not like spring around here isn't technically still rough as fuck," he said, a shade grimly.

"It's low on the birds and the bees?" Feferi asked, 'innocently'.

" _Oh_ my god," the human said, more faintly than before. This time Eridan was silently blushing like he hadn't always wielded a little flirty talk like a machine gun, clutching the scarves he was unpacking to his chest.

But then he laughed. Feferi was surprised - she had expected more tension to build as he took it all too seriously, and honestly, hadn't exactly minded the thought.

"She'll get you into that bed by any means necessary, Strider, hook or crook," he said. "You'd be better off plantin a flag to claim your side of it before tonight."

Well, well, a real name. Strider at last made more of a movement, looking between the two of them with a little alarm. "As I said last night, at the kind of length you brought on yourselves, your spurious claims about the temperatures I can withstand--"

"Were backed up by you! Out of your own mouth!" Feferi said.

"The 'Mr Human Frailty' thing was a joke. I mean, when standing between two tall, dark, and jacked members of a species with natural anti-freeze running in their veins to ward off the chill of the crushing depths, as a rule a little jocularity doesn't go amiss. It's actually Dirk Strider - 'sup."

"He makes a good point, Fef," Eridan said.

She rolled her eyes, trying to stick with trolling and not how much she was genuinely worried about the wordy weirdo they were perforce sharing with. It did stick in her sensibilities to leave someone to be miserable and start sickening when she could help, and this guy had let Eridan talk history all morning and been genuinely interested - sometimes looking like he was dying to respond but was too busy thawing out to do so - and for all the alien talk, the species difference hadn't bothered him at all when they'd discovered the accidental double-booking, so that he'd simply started making plans with them... 

Then Eridan stood, leaving his bags and small piles of clothes and tools at the table. "We are pretty jacked, what with highblood strength and all."

He swept Dirk Strider up into his arms, and whirled towards the stairs that led to the bedroom.

"Now I see why you like wearing a cape," Feferi said, eyes round.

"Dramatic flair never goes amiss," Eridan said.

"Dammit," said Dirk. "I was fully set to get pissed, and then you went ahead and said that. I feel that sentiment too hard to muster the completely reasonable animosity I am now due."

"Fef, please don't dignify that with--"

"You ain't felt nothing hard yet!" Feferi said immediately. She pressed a kiss to Eridan's cheek as she passed them on the stairs, and winked at Dirk. Rushing ahead, she opened the bedroom door and plugged in the electric blanket.

*

"I could have started a fire," Dirk said. "I'm good at those, you know. There's probably enough dry wood to last the whole booking. Then I'd have been warm."

It turned out that he reacted to kind touch like a troll: frustrated and a victim to the sensations, restless and ready for far more as soon as enough of the horror of wanting it crumbled. Eridan had taken advantage to get his head in Dirk's lap, and Feferi had curled up on the pillows and around Dirk, happily keeping up her flirting.

"When Eridan catches his first fish, you can make a fire and grill it for us. Cooked fish! Exotic and delicious," she suggested. She got the sense that he liked being a caretaker too, with his fingers running compulsively, gently through Eridan's hair like that.

Dirk sank deeper under the blanket, making Eridan wriggle in pleasant discontent, and also more heavily against Feferi. "Don't see how it could actually be Ampora's first fish, anyway," he said, clearly looking for things to grumble about.

"Some of us only like fresh water, all right," Eridan snapped drowsily. "Never could stand goin deep-sea huntin. Why I'm lookin forward to that lake out there so much."

"Just what I expected from a sea dweller," Dirk said.

Feferi grimaced and glanced at Eridan. She didn't think, in the time they hadn't spoken, that he could have left behind all that pride he'd prided himself on.

If he looked discomfited, he did look like he could manage it. "Yeah well ... troll frailty, human frailty, it's goin round." A small gesture, but with Eridan, a very sweet one.

She couldn't help it, she had to pet his hair too, and stroke a hand down his face.

"It's reelly good making old and new friends," she told them both.

"And you're ectotherms," Dirk said, a little too loudly. "Making a habit out of snuggle time would be keeping you warmer than it would me."

"Oh, I don't know," Feferi said, blowing a little stream of air onto one ruddy, blushing cheek. He really didn't seem to flinch, ever! He let out his own sharp breath, though. "We haven't even put on the extra heaters in here yet. And we seem to have found ways to warm you just fine."


End file.
